Saturday, September 6, 2008

I am in China

At last, I have arrived in China.

You may be wondering why I've returned to Blogspot... well... Multiply cannot be accessed from here. Believe me, I've tried every way that I could find to get to my site. So for the next 2 months, I won't be able to post or view anything over there. I guess that's just fine... so, here I am, back on Blogspot... at least until I get back to Manila or Hong Kong, where I can check Multiply again.

Anyway... it's been a busy few days... Cinderella has me running around China for a different reason, other than being ordered around onstage by the lovely trio of Julia, Brandy and Jen... I've been doing publicity work. Interviews (print and TV), and press conferences in my lovely golden press gown singing a song or two from the show. In Hong Kong I did my press stuff solo; in China, I'm doing press with Peter Saide, our lovely Prince Charming. So far, the press tour has hit Hong Kong and Shanghai... we have just Beijing and Xi'an left. I'm looking forward to arriving in Xi'an, so that I can properly unpack my suitcase and settle my self somewhere. It'll also be nice to not ride a plane for a few weeks... the flights have been short, but the packing and checking in and security... well, you get the idea. It's not been fun doing it every single day.

So far, what I've observed of China is beautiful. I haven't yet had the time to explore the country, since I've needed to be on call for work, but I know that I'll have the time in which to do all this. There's the Terra Cotta Army, City Walls and Great Mosque in Xi'an... the Great Wall, Tianenmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing... and the shopping district in Shanghai which looks very, very dangerous... to my wallet.

The press here has been really sweet and nice, as have been the people from Broadway Asia taking care of us. There was one little glitch (the check-in person at the airport in Hong Kong was asking if I have this Alien Certification of Employment... picture me with a glazed look in my eye, with no knowledge of what he's talking about since I have no such document in my possession... only a Z visa which, from what I've been told, should suffice, and actually did)... but the rest has been smooth sailing.

Here are a few things I've found amusing since my arrival:

- a little console on the left hand side of the immigration officer's booth... it lights up when he/she is almost done examining your travel documents... it asks you to rate the level of service, ranging from Very Satisfactory to Poor. I pressed the Very Satisfactory button, only because it was midnight, and her efficiency at the time of day was admirable. She didn't smile, but she did her job right.

- the labels on two of the light switches in my hotel room in Beijing... I've posted them here so you see what I mean.

This was the light switch for the toilet.

 And this was for the light over the bar area.


- students studying English get to pick their English name... one of the marketing people's name is Barney. It's a name he picked out for himself while a student. At first he picked the name Chieftain, but since that wasn't a real name, he went for Barney instead, as inspired by Neil Patrick Harris' character on How I Met Your Mother. Cute. And Barney was very cute.

- the brand new Beijing airport looks like the Hong Kong airport on steroids. Seriously. See the photos below.




- Shanghai was first described to me as a city where you have old buildings and new buildings side by side... or one in front of the other. I didn't quite understand that, until I got there and looked outside my bedroom window after waking up. By golly, he was right!



- the infrastructure here is MARVELOUS!!! Wide streets, fabulous airports (the Shanghai Pudong airport is another one to behold)... as always, when I see airports that nice only a few hours from home, it gives me major penis envy.

So far, that's it. I'll keep posting more as my travels continue... but for now, I have to sleep. I have another long day before we finally fly to Xi'an. Good night!

11 comments:

inverbras said...

nice to see you blogger again.

should take a trip to china someday. would not want my learning the language to go to waste.

cheers..

MIkaela said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MIkaela said...

Thank God for blogger. =)

The Cinderella Review contest was a success and your fans are so happy with your choice.

We have photos and videos of your press cons in Shanghai that were sent to us by members to be posted in the Fan Group. We are being updated that way. T

Good luck and break a leg Manang. =)

Jojo Terencio said...

Nice to read your blog again, Manang!

Good luck and we miss you here in Manila :-)

kristy said...

Hahaha :-) "close stool", that's funny! This just made my morning. You really wonder where in the world did they get the translated term. But that's just fine. :-) It made me raise an eyebrow (at first), but leave an indelible smile on my face. :-) I'm sure you're gonna find more amusing terms than what you've seen so far through out your travel around China.

加油 "jia you"!! Good Luck!

Tin said...

nice! thanks for blogging about your china adventures. =) nice to see you blogging with pictures!

weird that multiply can't be accessed there.. and do you also watch how i met your mother? haha i love that show, although the first two seasons were much better than the third.

enjoy china and hong kong! =)

arlin said...

shanghai's so beautiful especially at night..will be waiting to hear more of your adventures there. goodluck on your show!

Unknown said...

wow!saya saya naman!

Unknown said...

wow ang saya naman! Thanks for the info. i should visit china too.

Anonymous said...

I will watch Cinderella in Xi'an. Just to see you.
-Pia, Pinoy

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.